Beyond Blood
by unicorn-skydancer08
Summary: An unexpected visitor shows up in Narnia, who just so happens to share a connection with an old friend of Tumnus and the Four Monarchs.
1. Chapter 1: Illustrating the Soul

**BEYOND BLOOD  
**

 _Wowsers, my first Narnia fanfic since...ever! Feeling a bit rusty, but it's an oh-so-good feeling to come back.  
_

 _It's also great that they're FINALLY going through with a new Narnia movie, though it also disheartens me some that they plan on "rebooting" the entire franchise. I suppose it's better than nothing, but still, what was wrong with the series as it was? Thank heaven for DVDs and YouTube._

* * *

 **Terence, Tristan and Story ©** ** **unicorn-skydancer08****

 **Other Characters** **© **C.S. Lewis/Disney/Walden Media/Fox  
****

 ** _All rights reserved._**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 1: ILLUSTRATING THE SOUL  
**

Terence applied the final stroke of paint before leaning back on his stool, folding his hands behind his head, and pronouncing with satisfaction (and a bit of sadness), "There we are. Perfect."

On the big canvas mounted in front of him, a lovely, dainty unicorn mare stared back at him, with eyes bluer than the deepest sea. She stood alone under a cluster of trees, with one silver hoof raised just a bit. Her sumptuous moon-white mane and purple coat contrasted starkly with the dark green trees, her silver seashell horn seemed to touch the sky itself, and a number of leaves swirled around her in a sort of dance.

Terence, who had spent well over a month on this project, couldn't help getting a lump in his throat and a sting in his eyes as he regarded the final result. He almost had to stop himself from reaching out to touch that face—and not just to check whether the paint was sufficiently dry.

"Still at work on that masterpiece, are you, mate?" Tumnus's voice spoke from behind.

"Just finished," Terence replied without turning his head. "Feel free to come and tell me what you think."

A moment later, the faun appeared at his side, with Lucy not two steps behind. Beaver and Edmund were there, too.

"Hey, that's wonderful, Terence!" Lucy cried, moving closer to the picture at once.

"That _is_ amazing," said Tumnus, his teal-blue eyes wide and his goat ears twitching in fascination. "All that time and work have really paid off."

"Thanks, mate," said Terence with his hands still cradling his head.

"You're gettin' to be quite the master of the arts, old boy," commended Beaver.

"Oh, stop it, Beaver. It's just a little hobby I picked up."

"Just a little hobby, you call it?" Beaver's black bead eyes squinted in disbelief. "You woefully underestimate yourself and your abilities, boy. Y'know that?"

Edmund gave Terence's back a good-natured slap as he said, "Maybe we ought to commission you to do our royal portraits someday. I'd pay extra money for mine!"

A small smile played on Terence's lips as he answered, "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer someday."

"May I ask whose portrait this is?" Lucy asked with her gaze still fixed on the purple unicorn.

"You may, and this is my mother."

"Your mother?" Tumnus repeated softly, more as a statement than anything else.

"That's right."

"She's so beautiful," Lucy said. "Her eyes are just like yours, Terence."

"Thank you, Lucy."

"I'm surprised you remembered all those details so well," said Beaver.

"How could I forget her?" Sometimes Terence would have sworn his hand had taken on a mind all its own while it manipulated the brush.

"I'm sorry about what happened to her, mate," said Tumnus gently. "That's a truly terrible thing."

"Me too," said Lucy, now turning to face Terence fully. "How anyone could harm such a pretty creature on purpose is beyond me."

Now Terence dropped his hands and slumped forward, murmuring, "Then again, most people had the idea that unicorns were meant to be hunted, and that a unicorn's beauty only served as a ruse."

Lucy shook her head in dismay. "A most revolting idea."

Beaver also shook his head, and Tumnus gave Terence's right shoulder a light squeeze.

"You know, Terence," said Edmund at length, "you never did tell us much about your family."

Terence slowly raised his face to the Just King's as he countered, "What's there to tell?"

"Oh, you know, your home, your parents, your grandparents, any siblings if you have them, that sort of thing."

With a halfhearted shrug, Terence said, "My home wasn't really that much of a home anyway, not after my mother died. Some unicorns were kind enough to me, but most avoided me altogether. And I never knew my grandparents, or my father, at all. Whether or not they're still alive is far beyond my realm of knowledge."

Tumnus tsk-tsked while Beaver muttered, "Oy, that's a shame."

"A most terrible shame, indeed," said Lucy.

Edmund persisted, "Are you sure there isn't _anyone_ left in your family that you know of, Terence? Not even one?"

After a considerable pause, the white-haired youth confessed, in a tone that was almost inaudible even for Tumnus, "There is one."

"Oh?" Tumnus pricked his ears in interest. "Who is that?"

"My brother."

"Older or younger?" asked Edmund.

"Older."

"What's his name?" Beaver queried.

"Tristan."

"Tristan." Tumnus rolled the name around his tongue as if to sample an exotic flavor. "I like that."

"What's he like?" Lucy asked eagerly.

Terence's second shrug had even less heart than the first. "Tall. Strong. Brown eyes. Bronze coat. Golden mane. Tail long enough to carry like a flag. Black horn. Black hooves. Sticky accent. About as fine a stallion as they come, I suppose."

Edmund furrowed his brow. "Is that all?"

With a deep sigh, Terence closed his eyes and hid them in his palm for a moment. When he took his hand away and looked up again, he said with better coherence, "Much as I hate to say it, Edmund, he and I didn't exactly see eye to eye. So I avoided him as much as I could help it."

"It couldn't have been as bad as all that," said Lucy, "could it?"

"Wish I could say it wasn't, but it was. Sure, we had our civil moments here and there. But on the whole, he and I had next to nothing to do with one another."

After another awkward silence, Beaver mumbled, "Well…erm…sorry to hear that, too, my boy."

"Me too," Tumnus whispered.

Edmund just looked at Lucy, and she looked at him, both remembering how they'd often fought and snubbed one another when they were younger. Even so, no matter how serious the quarrel, each had always known the other one had always cared.

Getting to his feet, Terence said (for an obvious change of subject), "Well, this artist has worked up an appetite. What do you say to some lunch, mates?"

"Sounds great," said Edmund, his face instantly brightening. "I know _I_ could eat an entire gryphon right about now."

"Better not let a gryphon hear you say that," said Lucy with an impish wag of her finger.

"You should see today's menu," said Tumnus as they all headed out of the little chamber together. "They've got roast chicken, bread, potatoes—"

"And sardines?" Lucy cut in.

The faun grinned. "By the bucketload!"

"What _is_ it with you and sardines, anyhow?" asked Edmund, making a slight grimace. "Personally, I never developed a taste for those things."

Terence rejoined, "That's because _you_ have underdeveloped taste buds, my friend."

"You know the old saying, mateys," said Beaver. "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day; give a man a bad fish and he'll swear off fish for the rest of his life."


	2. Chapter 2: Suspicious Strangers

**BEYOND BLOOD  
**

 _I'm back, mates, and so is this story. I had almost forgotten how fun and gratifying Narnia fan fiction was, though I must admit I'm well pleased with the rising quality of my writing.  
_

 _Happy reading (and reviewing)!_

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 **Terence, Tristan and Story ©** ** **unicorn-skydancer08****

 **Other Characters** **© **C.S. Lewis/Disney/Walden Media/Fox  
****

 ** _All rights reserved._**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 2: SUSPICIOUS STRANGERS  
**

For the next two days, no further questions were asked about Terence's family tree, though Terence knew his friends' curiosity must have been truly piqued. While the white-haired youth never spoke of it himself, the mention of his brother got him thinking a great deal. Now he couldn't stop wondering where Tristan was, what he was doing, if he was all right, if he even noticed (or cared about) Terence's absence, what he would think if he could see Terence now.

People meant it when they said Terence was never very good at hiding his emotions. His mates usually knew in a heartbeat when something was troubling him. They also knew better than to pry too much, although Tumnus did ask at one point, "Are you all right, Terence?"

"I'm fine," the youth replied with a tone and expression that insisted otherwise.

On the third day, General Oreius and a small band of centaurs, fauns, and dwarves came to report to High King Peter while he sat on his throne. Queen Susan was there, too. Terence, Lucy, and Tumnus just so happened to be in the same room when Oreius said to Peter, "Sire, we have just received word of some of the White Witch's old minions stirring up chaos throughout random parts of Narnia."

"How many of these minions?" Peter inquired.

One of the fauns answered, "So far, we have heard of two trolls, three minotaurs, four rogue dwarves, and six wolves, and at least one of the latter is assumed to be a man-wolf."

Terence felt a chill run along his spine at that last part, while the color drained from Tumnus and Lucy's faces like liquid from a faulty spigot. Common wolves who served the White Witch were bad enough, but the men-wolves—otherwise termed "werewolves"—were what you had to watch out for the most. Folks for miles around frequently claimed that a dozen wolves were so much more preferable to a single man-wolf, and after Terence and Tumnus's not-so-long-ago skirmish with the infamous Ardat, neither the young man nor the faun could agree more.

"Have you been able to verify the activity of these creatures?" asked Susan, her voice low and steady.

Oreius shook his head. "Not yet, Your Ladyship. As of now, this is purely hearsay."

"All the same," said Peter, rising a little taller in his seat, "best to keep our eyes and ears open. The White Witch herself may be gone but we must still remain on the alert for her goons."

"Now that's got to be the most unnecessary thing he'll ever say," Lucy whispered to Tumnus and Terence, who both nodded.

"Have you anything else to report?" Peter went on.

Now one of the dwarves piped up. "There is one, Your Highness. Don't know how necessary this is to tell you, but for the last week or so, we could not help but take notice of a strange unicorn roaming these parts."

At the word "unicorn," Terence stood stock-still and listened with the utmost intent, his bright sapphire eyes at least twice their usual size.

"What do you mean by 'strange'?" asked Peter.

"Strange in that we suspect he may not be a Narnian citizen," said the centaur on Oreius's left flank.

"He?" repeated Susan.

"At least, we assume it's a male," said another faun, his freckled cheeks taking on the slightest shade of pink. "There was a beard, anyway, from what I could gather."

Now Tumnus and Lucy became statue-like as well.

Peter asked, "Can you give a more elaborate description of this creature?"

Oreius said, "Well, sir, none of us were able to see the creature up close and personal, as you might say. Even so, I could gather he was a big beast, no less than twenty hands high. His body was a deep bronze color, and his mane and tail were like the purest honey. While I couldn't get too good a look at his horn, I estimated it must have been at least four feet in length."

Terence gave out a short, sharp gasp. When Tumnus and Lucy looked at him, they saw that his face had gone as white as his hair and goatee, if not whiter.

"Terence?" said Lucy tentatively, reaching out a hand to him.

"Mate?" whispered Tumnus.

Terence stayed where he was for about three seconds more before turning and bolting as if the place were on fire.

* * *

Though Tumnus and Lucy spent well over an hour searching for Terence, they didn't see him again until lunch. He just came to the table without a word, and he spent more time poking his food than eating it. Given his reputation as a certified bottomless pit, everyone knew something was up when the boy declined to eat. Lucy and Tumnus wisely decided to forego any questions, and Edmund and Beaver also figured it'd be best to say nothing for the time being.

After lunch, Peter announced that he, Susan, and Edmund were going out with Oreius and the others to "further investigate."

"Wait for me!" Lucy called as the group was heading out. "I'm coming, too!"

From the way most of them stared at Lucy, you would have thought the girl had sprouted a second head. " _What?_ " Peter exclaimed.

"I should say not," said Susan indignantly. "This is no business for children."

Lucy looked and sounded like she had just been insulted in the worst way. "Oh, for the Lion's sake, Susan, I'm as good as grown-up! Besides, I'm only four years younger than you."

Susan scowled.

"What harm can there be in letting Lu tag along?" Edmund asked his elder siblings, offering a small smile.

But Peter shook his head and told Lucy in his firmest tone, "No. You're staying here."

"Peter—"

"My answer is _no_."

Lucy kept quiet after that, though she made somewhat of a nasty face at Peter and Susan when they had their backs turned. Edmund merely shrugged his shoulders with a can't-say-that-I-didn't-try expression before hurrying to catch up with the others.

When the group had left, Tumnus gently suggested, "Hey, Lucy, what do you say we go for a little ride through the woods? That'll cheer you up."

Lucy wasn't too inclined, but understanding Tumnus's efforts, she managed to smile a bit when she said, "All right. That might be nice."

"Care to join us, Terence?" Tumnus asked. "You could also benefit from the fresh air."

Terence didn't want to say yes, but he couldn't think of a good enough reason for saying no. So he spread his empty hands and answered passively, "Okay, Tumnus, you talked me into it."


End file.
